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Audemars Piguet Releases Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked To Mark 50 Years.

Writer's picture: Sean GohSean Goh

This post is about The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972


To celebrate the Royal Oak's 50th anniversary, Audemars Piquet releases their first ever Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked in a 41mm diameter. The timepiece is powered by a Calibre 2972, their first ever selfwinding flying tourbillon openworked mechanism. This latest movement builds on Audemars Piguet’s long expertise in both openworking and tourbillon mechanisms, pushing the contemporary aesthetics to new heights.



The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972

Technical Specifications:

Function: Flying Tourbillon, hours and minutes

Case: Stainless steel case, glareproofed sapphire crystal and caseback, water-resistant to 50 m.

Case thickness: 10.6 mm

Dial: Rhodium-toned openworked movement, white gold applied hour-markers and Royal Oak hands with luminescent coating, slate grey inner bezel.

Bracelet: Stainless steel bracelet with AP folding clasp.

Movement: Calibre 2972

Diameter: 31.5 mm (13 ¾ lignes)

Thickness: 6.84 mm

Jewels: 27

Number of parts: 271

Power reserve: 65 hour minimum.

Balance Wheel Frequency: 3 Hz.



The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972

About The Calibre 2972

The newly released Calibre 2972, which combines a central rotor with a flying tourbillon, evolves from the Calibre 2950, launched in 2019 as part of the Code 11.59 collection. With its new openworked concept, the timepiece displays its symmetry of engineering and a slender design that has a play with light.


The Calibre 2972 is built on its historic openworking techniques that date back to the 1930s. The beauty of the design is shown (openfaced) by removing materials such as the watch face itself to allow light to pass through from top to bottom, reviling a "skeleton-like" design which allows the one who wears it to see each an every component working together in a synchronized fashion.



The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972

Audemars Piguet says that in order to do so, state-of-the-art technologies have been utilized to cut through preliminary geometries and bridges of the mainplate using computer numerical control (CNC) machining before being perfected by electric discharge machining (EDM). This allows the manufacturing process to remove and alter minute details with extreme precision to achieve the desired shape.


To enable light to effectively pass and review the inner workings of the Calibre 2972, each component is finished with refined Haute Horlogerie decorations which include “traits tirés,” satin, circular and sunray brushing, snailing, as well as polished chamfers. The marvelous hand-workings of the V hand can be admired on both sides thanks to some polish reflects the relentless level of handicraft that makes the Calibre 2972 what it is.



The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972

Since we saved the best for last, we hope you've contacted your client advisor because this will make you want it even more! The flying tourbillon mechanism, located at the 6 o'clock position, purposed to enhance accuracy and compensates for the effect of gravity. A balance wheel is housed in a rolling cage that revolves once every minute to remove any remaining static from the hairspring. Only a handful of watchmakers are skilled enough to engineer a flying tourbillon and Audemars Piguet certainly are one of them.


* All media and information provided by Audemars Piguet *

This post is about The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Calibre 2972.

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